Aspiring writers may wonder how they will achieve their dreams of becoming authors by translating their ideas into print from their computer screens. How does a book get to a reader from a writer? It is hence essential to understand this process. Book publishers have a large team that in collaboration with you, helps you to publish your book. For self-publishing, you go through the same phases of publication, but you do more of it yourself. This guide will take you through the different options of book publishing process for you to choose which the best is for you.
Traditional Publishing Versus Self Publishing
Traditional publishing involves the author giving a contract to a publisher who in turns does all the work in place of the author. The work includes book editing, production, printing, marketing, publicity, and sales. To publish a book through traditional method, an author has to know the category of writing, submit sample synopsis and chapters and a book proposal and then write a query letter to find an agent. The author then chooses his preference agent from the presenting potential agents. Self-publishing involves investing of authors own money to go through the similar steps while they retain all rights of their book and profits. They have to market, produce, distribute and warehouse the book on their own.
How it Begins
Book publishing process begins with book editing. The author and the editorial department guides the flow, context, and language to come up with a brilliant piece of writing. After editing, the manuscript goes to book production department. The department is involved in designing the page layouts, size, book cover, printing, and binding. Book marketing and publicity launch the book into the external market after production. Print online media, broadcast, social media and seasonal book catalogs are all tools used to market the book. Lastly, the book sales department sells your book to other retailers. The department also sells rights to have the book published in alternate formats and different languages to be fit for a diverse audience.
In conclusion, both the book publishing process are good options but depends on various things such as the type of writing and capital availability, but it’s up to you to decide. Traditional publishing is preferable if the author does not know how to reach the audience, has no online touch, wants a publisher to handle the marketing for you and the published book to be in a well-known bookstore. For poetry and family history, self-publishing is more appropriate as the audience is limited.